Rights groups on Saturday expressed outrage over an Indian court order which has issued tough guidelines on religious conversions and inter-faith marriages.

The Rajasthan High Court on Friday, while hearing a case regarding conversion of a Hindu woman to Islam, issued 10 guidelines “to check the problem of forcible conversion of religion”.

According to the new guidelines, anyone who wishes to change his/her religion in Rajasthan state will have to inform district authorities who will place a public declaration on a notice board and inform the families involved.

Any marriage ceremony will be solemnised a week after this declaration.

The order came as Hindu right-wing groups allege that cases of ‘love Jihad’ are increasing in the Hindu-majority country – a term they have coined to accuse Muslim men of luring non-Muslim women to Islam by feigning love.

“These directives are disgusting,” Kavita Srivastava, president of the Rajasthan chapter of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) told Anadolu Agency.

“I believe this [order] takes away the individual freedom to decide which faith you want to belong to,” she said, adding that they will challenge it in the country’s top court.

Another activist Brinda Adige told Anadolu Agency: “Religion is not public domain, it is a private affair. Placing these guidelines on adults is entering the privacy of their homes and targeting their personal space.”